Agricultural implement pickup

ABSTRACT

A pickup for an agricultural implement, the pickup including spaced-apart end members supporting an upper windguard and adaptable for selective connection to multiple windguard configurations.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to hay balers, and moreparticularly to an improved windguard system for the crop pickup andfeeder assembly of a round baler.

For many years agricultural balers have been used to consolidate andpackage crop material so as to facilitate the storage and handling ofthe crop material for later use. Usually, a mower-conditioner cuts andconditions the crop material for windrow drying in the sun. When the cutcrop material is properly dried, a baler, most likely a round baler, ispulled along the windrows to pick up the crop material and form it intocylindrically-shaped round bales. More specifically, the pickup of thebaler gathers the cut and windrowed crop material from the ground thenconveys the cut crop material with a conveyor, such as a rotatingconveying rotor, into a bale-forming chamber within the baler. Thepickup assembly has a drive mechanism that operates to activate both thepickup and the conveying rotor, and the pickup drive mechanism isoperably connected to and driven by the main drive mechanism of thebaler. The baling chamber Consists of a pair of opposing sidewalls witha series of belts that rotate and compress the crop material into acylindrical shape. When the bale has achieved a desired size anddensity, the operator wraps the bale to ensure that the bale maintainsits shape and density. The operator raises the tailgate of the baler andejects the bale onto the ground. The tailgate is then closed and thecycle repeated as necessary and desired to manage the field of cut cropmaterial.

The rotor conveyor mechanism (“rotor” or “rotor mechanism”) between thepickup and the bale-forming chamber is, itself, known in the prior art,as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,595,055 and 6,644,006. Therotor mechanism is usually referred to as the “stuffer”, because itstuffs the crop material into the gap between the floor roll and thestarter roll into the bale-forming chamber.

It has been customary to provide the pickup mechanism with a lowerwindguard which pivots and floats to hold down the hay or other cropmaterial as it is being fed rearwardly to prevent the crop material frombeing blown off the pickup floor and to ensure an adequate compaction ofthe crop material for good feeding into the stuffer mechanism.Additionally, a separate windguard is sometimes included above thestuffer assembly; however, this windguard pivots only, without floating.The pivot point of known upper windguards is positioned well above thestuffer assembly to allow large slugs of crop to pass underneath. Withthis high pivot position, the windguard often fails to keep the cropcompressed when under normal crop flow. When the crop is not compressedas it enters the bale-forming chamber, difficulties in starting a balecan occur.

Conventional windguards are fairly simple structures, and include anelongated pipe-like member, often referred to as a windguard pipe,extending across the front of the pickup mechanism with a plurality oftines attached to the windguard pipe along its length extendingrearwardly over the pickup mechanism. This type of windguard may bemanually adjusted for different sizes of windrows of crop material bypositioning the windguard pipe and the tines closer to the pickupmechanism for small windrows or farther away from the pickup mechanismfor large windrows. If the windguard is adjusted for small windrows anda large windrow is encountered, the windguard pipe and tines may be tooclose to the pickup mechanism to accommodate the large windrow. Thiscould cause plugging of the pickup mechanism. If the windguard isadjusted for large windrows and a small windrow is encountered, thewindguard tines may be too far away from the pickup mechanism to protectthe small windrow. This could result in wind, loss of crop material, or,as mentioned above, difficulties in starting the bale core.

It would improve the operation of agricultural crop pickups if theproblems identified above could be overcome.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention is to provide animproved windguard system for round balers;

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improvedwindguard with interchangeable crop-engaging elements for the pickup andstuffer of a round baler;

It is another object of the instant invention to provide a windguard forthe pickup of a round baler, the windguard having interchangeablecrop-engaging elements that provide better feeding in a wider range ofcrops;

It is another object of the instant invention to provide a windguardthat provides increased versatility to a round baler;

It is another object of the instant invention to provide an agriculturalimplement pickup with upper and lower windguards, both of which rotateand float;

It is a still further object of this invention to provide anagricultural implement pickup with upper and lower windguards supportedby side sheets, the side sheets adaptable to be connected to multipleconfigurations of windguards;

It is an even still further object of this invention to provide anagricultural round baler pickup adaptable for selective connection tomultiple configurations of windguards;

It is another object of this invention to provide and effective andefficient assembly to move crop material through and agricultural pickupand stuffer; and

It is yet another object of this invention to provide a novel windguardstructure that selectively employs multiple windguard configurationsthat is durable in construction, inexpensive of manufacture, carefree ofmaintenance, facile in assemblage, and simple, versatile and effectivein use.

These and other objects are attained by providing a pickup for anagricultural implement, the pickup including spaced-apart end memberssupporting an upper windguard and adaptable for selective connection tomultiple windguard configurations.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The advantages of this invention will be apparent upon consideration ofthe following detailed disclosure of the invention, especially whentaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a representation of a partial side sectional view of a roundbaler pickup, stuffer and bale-forming chamber showing a windguard inplace for normal operation;

FIG. 2 is a partial front perspective view of a basic round baler pickupwith a combined upper and lower windguard;

FIG. 3 is a partial perspective view of a tine windguard extension;

FIG. 4 is a partial perspective view of a plate-type windguardextension;

FIG. 5 is partial perspective view of a basic low cost plate windguard;

FIG. 6 is a partial perspective view of a plate windguard extension; and

FIG. 7 is a partial perspective view of a roller windguard extension.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Many of the fastening, connection, processes and other means andcomponents utilized in this invention are widely known and used in thefield of the invention described, and their exact nature or type is notnecessary for an understanding and use of the invention by a personskilled in the art, and they will not therefore be discussed insignificant detail. Also, any reference herein to the terms “left” or“right” are used as a matter of mere convenience, and are determined bystanding at the rear of the machine facing in its normal direction oftravel. Furthermore, the various components shown or described hereinfor any specific application of this invention can be varied or alteredas anticipated by this invention and the practice of a specificapplication of any element may already by widely known or used in theart by persons skilled in the art and each will likewise not thereforebe discussed in significant detail.

Round balers are well known in the agricultural industry, and theinstant invention can be used with substantially any of such machines.Reference is made, for example, to U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,688,092 and6,295,797 that illustrate two such balers.

FIG. 1 depicts an agricultural round baler, generally designated 10, asit would be pulled from right to left along a windrow of cut cropmaterial by a tractor (not shown). Baler 10 is comprised of awheel-supported bale-forming mechanism with a crop pickup 12 for movingthe crop material from the field along and past the stuffer assembly 14in the direction of arrow 16. The stuffer assembly pushes the cropmaterial into the gap between the floor roll 18 and the starter roll 20and thence into the bale-forming chamber 22. Pickup 12 is usually widerthan the bale-forming chamber of the baler 10 and includes its own framemounted to the main frame of the baler for pivoting about a horizontaltransverse axis.

As alluded to previously, the crop in the field is usually arranged in awindrow as it is engaged by the pickup 12. Depending upon the conditionof the crop, i.e., the volume and length of crop, the flow of the cropmaterial through the pickup and stuffer can range from fairly constantto irregular, and may contain frequent or infrequent slugs—a larger thannormal volume of material. The issue addressed herein relates to theunderstanding that the core of a bale, and the starting of a new bale,is improved if the crop being fed into the gap between the floor rolland the starter roll is compressed rather than fluffed or feathery andwhen the crop is efficiently and effectively moved through the pickupand stuffer.

The prior art, as exhibited for instance in the '092 patent identifiedabove, recognizes that a windguard properly located above the pickup canpromote a more continuous and even flow of crop material. The instantinvention is to a significant improvement to the windguard concept. Somecurrent round balers with stuffers use two windguards, one upper and onelower, to keep the crop compressed while being fed the pickup andstuffer into the bale-forming chamber. The lower windguard is situatedabove the pickup and is capable of floating and pivoting. The upperwindguard is positioned above the stuffer assembly and pivots withoutfloating. This upper windguard is positioned with the pivot well abovethe stuffer assembly to allow large slugs of crop material to passunderneath. With this high pivot position, the windguard fails to keepthe crop material compressed when under normal crop flow. As indicated,when the crop is not compressed when entering the bale chamber,difficulties in starting a bale core can occur.

Still referring to FIG. 1, one embodiment of the invention is shown toinclude a pair of windguards 24 and 30 that provide the necessary cropcompaction prior to being fed into the bale-forming chamber. The lowerwindguard 24 includes a float arm 25 rotatable about fixed pin 26. Theforward end of float arm 25 is rotatably affixed to a transverse crossmember 28 that extends across the width of the pickup 12. Transversecross member 28 is populated with a plurality of spaced-apart tines 36.The float arm 24 is positioned such that the tines 36 may be shaped asshown, extending forwardly of an above pickup 12 and extendingrearwardly toward stuffer 14. With a similar structural arrangement onthe opposite side of the pickup, the transverse member 28 and the tines36 are adequately supported and the rotation about pin 26 and theconnection between arm 25 and transverse member 28 allow the tines 36 tofloat with the volume of crop moving through pickup 12 and to maintainan appropriate amount of compaction thereof. Upper windguard 30 issupported by a structure quite similar to that just defined for thelower windguard. Float arm 32 rotates about pin 31 and transverse member28, similar to 28, supports a plurality of spaced-apart fines 34 acrossthe pickup 12. Tines 34 extend rearwardly from the forward end of floatarm 32 toward the transverse gap between floor roll 18 and starter roll20. Thus, both the upper and lower windguards both float and pivot (orrotate), providing the desires contact with and compaction of cropmaterial.

The weight of each windguard is enough to maintain the crop in acompressed state while entering the bale-forming chamber. In operation,the crop is engaged by the pickup 12 and pushed toward the stufferassembly 14. The lower windguard 24, if for instance a slug is fed,pivots upwardly about axis formed by pin 26 and floats about the axis oftransverse member 28. As the slug moves rearwardly through the stufferassembly 14 the slug causes the upper windguard 30 to pivot upwardlyabout pin 31. During this entire operation, the windguards are incontact with the crop material, or slug, and maintains it in acompressed condition to be fed into the bale-forming chamber. Themaximum downward movement of transverse member 28 may be limited by achain or other similar flexible connector between member 28 and anotherpart of the pickup or baler structure.

It is well known that as crop conditions vary the performance ofagricultural implements also varies. The variations in performance canbe explained by the difficulties in designing a pickup assembly thatconsistently feeds the crop material no matter what the length or volumeof crop material being handled. In a round baler crop conditions areencountered that run the full range of possibilities; however, there aremodifications, such as structural alternatives (or the modularity ofbeing able to choose different alternatives) to the pickup that can bemade to more effectively handle the variations. Other embodiments of theinstant invention directly address this issue.

FIG. 2 shows a basic low cost windguard on a round baler pickupassembly, generally depicted as 50. Pickup assembly 12 includes awheel-supported framed having generally vertical side members, or sheets52 and 54 with a pickup reel 56 supported therebetween. Two support arms58, 60 are rotatably affixed to respective side members 52, 54 and atthe other end to transverse member 62. Transverse member 62 is apipe-like element with a plurality of tines 64 affixed thereto in aspaced-apart relationship. The length of support arms 58, 60 are suchthat transverse member 62 is generally above the pickup reel 56. Thetransverse member 62 is rotatably mounted to the end of the respectivesupport arms 58, 60 and rotatably pinned at the other end to respectiveend members 52, 54. This arrangement allows both flotation and rotationof the windguard. This configuration is a general compromise regardingthe effectiveness with a range of crop conditions. As previously stated,pickup assemblies have a wide variety of configurations. The pickupassembly depicted in FIG. 2 employs consolidating augers on the outerends of the transition between the pickup reel 56 and the stuffer 66.The augers further consolidate the crop material to insure an effectiveand efficient bale formation.

FIG. 3 shows a modification to the windguard shown in FIG. 2. Twoextension arms 70, 72 are rotatably affixed to the respective forwardends of support arms 58, 60. The forward ends of extension arms 70, 72rotatably support a second transverse member 74. Similarly, thetransverse member 74 has a plurality of tines 76 affixed thereto andextending rearwardly and below transverse member 62. Both the primaryand extension windguards both float and rotate because of the way inwhich the transverse members are supported, and provide a fairlyconsistent compression of the crop material as it feeds through thepickup. This configuration works best with large windrowed crops.

In FIG. 4 there is depicted an alternative to the extension shown inFIG. 3. Extension arms 70, 72 are supported and connected as theembodiment of FIG. 3; however, instead of having tines, the extension isformed of a transverse plate 80. Plate 80 may be formed with a cylinderor partial cylinder at the leading edge through which a pipe-like membermay fit (and to which the plate is affixed) for support of the plate andpivotable attachment to the forward ends of extension arms as roller120, 72. Thus, similarly to the structure of FIG. 3, the basic and theextension windguards both float and rotate. Depending upon the width ofthe plate (front to back) a stop may be advantageous to prevent overrotation thereof. Again, a chain or similar device may be used to adjustthe maximum downward movement of the extension windguard. Thisconfiguration is best suited for short light crops.

Another alternative embodiment would be to employ a roller windguard onthe same extension structure as described above for the plate extension.The roller would have the configuration shown more particularly asroller 120 on the front of the machine of FIG. 7.

The pickup assembly shown in FIGS. 5-7 employs a rotor feeder ratherthan what was described above as a stuffer, though the type of feeder isnot particularly significant to the instant invention. FIG. 5 depicts ageneral windguard arrangement, suitable for many, but not all cropconditions. Two support arms 92, 94 are rotatably pinned adjacent therearward ends thereof to side members 96, 98 and extend downwardly andforwardly to a location above and forward of pickup reel 100. Atransverse plate 102 is rigidly affixed to the forward ends of supportarms 92, 94 and may have a few tines, such as 104 affixed thereto anddirected generally rearwardly to assist in the transport and confinementof crop material. This particular configuration is also best used withheavy, long crops.

FIG. 6 depicts a structure similar to that of FIG. 5, but with twoextension arms 110, 112 and the transverse plate 114. Plate 114 isrigidly affixed to extension arms 110, 112, but adjustably rotatableabout the connection between extension arms 110, 112 and support arms92, 94. This adjustment is made manually by the operator.

The windguard arrangement shown in FIG. 7 is similar to that of FIG. 6;however, instead of a plate, a roller 120 is affixed to the extensionarms 1 10, 112 for rotation as it engages the crop materials. The rollerpreferably has a hexagonal peripheral surface in cross-section, ratherthan round. This configuration is used to compress large windrowed cropsfor better feeding.

It will be understood that changes in the details, materials, steps andarrangements of parts which have been described and illustrated toexplain the nature of the invention will occur to and may be made bythose skilled in the art upon a reading of this disclosure within theprinciples and scope of the invention. The foregoing descriptionillustrates the preferred embodiment of the invention; however,concepts, as based upon the description, may be employed in otherembodiments without departing from the scope of the inventions.Accordingly, the following claims are intended to protect the inventionbroadly as well as in the specific form shown.

1. A windguard mechanism for use on the pickup mechanism and feederassembly of a round baler, said pickup mechanism having first and secondopposing spaced apart generally vertical side sheets and a transversepickup reel rotatably supported therebetween, and said baler including atransverse floor roll and a transverse starter roll with a transversegap therebetween, said windguard comprising: an upper windguardcomprising a first plurality of elongate spaced-apart tines having afirst end and a remote second end, said tines attached together at afirst position adjacent said first end of said times by a firsttransverse tine frame member forming a first transverse rotation axis;first and second elongate float arms each having a first and a remotesecond end, each said first and second float arm rotatably affixedadjacent the first end thereof to a respective side sheet of said pickupand affixed adjacent the second end thereof to said first transversetine frame member for rotation about said first transverse rotation axissuch that the first plurality of tines float in position generally abovesaid feeder assembly and said first plurality of tines extend generallytherefrom to said transverse gap between said floor roll and saidstarter roll; third and fourth elongate float arms each having a firstand a remote second end, each said third and fourth float arm rotatablyaffixed adjacent the first end thereof to a second end of respectivesaid first and second float arms and said second ends of said third andfourth float arms adaptable to selectively connect to one of a multipleof configurations of lower windguards.
 2. The windguard of claim 1,wherein: said feeder assembly comprises a stuffer mechanism.
 3. Thewindguard of claim 1, wherein: all of said multiple configurations oflower windguards both float and rotate and includes: a. a plurality offines affixed to an elongate transverse tine frame; b. an elongategenerally flat plate affixed to a transverse frame member; and c. anelongate roller.
 4. The windguard of claim 3 wherein: said elongateroller rotates upon contact with crop material.
 5. The improvement ofclaim 3, wherein: said elongate flat plate has a rotatable connection tosaid third and fourth float arms.
 6. A windguard mechanism for use onthe pickup mechanism and feeder assembly of a round baler, said pickupmechanism having first and second opposing spaced apart generallyvertical pickup end members side sheets and a transverse pickup reelrotatably supported therebetween, and said baler including a transversefloor roll and a transverse starter roll with a transverse gaptherebetween, said windguard mechanism comprising: first and secondelongate float arms each having a first and a remote second end, eachsaid first and second float arm rotatably affixed adjacent the first endthereof to a respective pickup end member; the said second ends of saidfirst and second float arms adaptable to selectively connect to one of amultiple of configurations of windguards.
 7. The windguard mechanism ofclaim 6, wherein: all of said multiple configurations of lowerwindguards both float and rotate and includes: a. an elongate generallyflat plate affixed to a transverse frame member; and b. an elongateroller.
 8. The windguard mechanism of claim 7, wherein: said rollerrotates upon contact with crop material.